


Eternity's a long time

by grimdarkfandango



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Emotionally Significant Picnics, M/M, South Downs Cottage (Good Omens), Wedding Rings, and slightly eldritch anxiety attacks, it's about the yearning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 09:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20113120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimdarkfandango/pseuds/grimdarkfandango
Summary: After the end, comes eternity.





	Eternity's a long time

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly a thank you of the highest order to Ponderosa, through whom all things are possible, even me writing and finishing a fic
> 
> You can find me on twitter and tumblr under the same name, if you're so inclined.
> 
> Large adult baby's first published fic, be kind and rewind <3

The end of the world has been, and gone. Their respective head offices had also been and gone, both with significantly less death and destruction than expected. The side effect of both encounters - and eleven years of close working beforehand, and 6000 years besides - left one rogue angel and one deserter demon standing together in an unburned bookshop, no orders or sides or world ending progeny in their way.  
  
After some silence, and some staring, some half-started words and frantic not-meeting of eyes, wrung hands and shuffled feet and a stammered excuse, Crowley left the bookshop and climbed in the driver’s seat of his also unburned Bentley.  
  
That was seven minutes ago.  
  
He was still parked outside the bookshop, staring at his white-knuckled hands gripping the steering wheel when Aziraphale opened the passenger door and climbed in. He juggled a picnic basket, leaning across the centre console to wedge it safely on the floor behind the driver’s seat before settling in his seat and clipping his seatbelt.  
  
“Sorry for making you wait my dear, I do think it’s suitable weather for a picnic, don’t you? Happy to wait in the car while you do whatever it is you need to, if you don’t mind me joining you.”  
  
Crowley stared at Aziraphale, barriers long shattered by the panic of the last few days and with no more will to hide.  
  
Crowley’s voice only cracked slightly, stammering half-sentences. “I have nowhere to go, I just wanted to see if I could... I couldn’t even will the damned car to start-”  
  
Aziraphale covered Crowley’s hand still gripped white on the steering wheel and spoke softly and with the honesty he’d so suppressed for centuries before.  
“I didn’t want you to go. Truthfully, I don’t ever want you to go again, not without me. Much better to go together, isn’t it?”  
  
Crowley barked a laugh, seemingly startling himself with the noise, hope and despair writ large across his face.  
  
“Eternity’s a long time, angel.”  
  
“So is 6000 years, and there’s not a moment in history where we were apart that wouldn’t have been improved by having you by my side.”  
  
They sat, eyes locked and hands clasped together, as the heavy silence settled around them into something more hopeful.  
  
Crowley cleared his throat and the car started without his hand ever moving from beneath Aziraphale’s. “Would be a shame to waste that picnic.”

  


They’re at a beach, some time and distance later. Aziraphale had led Crowley by the hand down the shore until they found a sheltered, clear stretch of sand for their picnic. He set the basket down and faced the roiling surf, shoulder leaning warm against Crowley’s.  
  
“Shall we set up here? I think we’ll have the beach to ourselves today.”  
  
Neither of them made a move to separate, and eventually Crowley tugged Aziraphale to face him. Crowley lifted the hand he still held to his lips and kissed the back of it, gently peppering small kisses across his knuckles as Aziraphale let the sea air fill his lungs and remain there, clear and sharp. Crowley closed his eyes and concentrated, blowing gently with heated lips against Aziraphale’s knuckle. Aziraphale watched in wonder as miracle gold wrapped itself around his finger, warm like sunshine - a golden ring with a slight scale pattern, a tiny snake with a small apple-red _(heart-red)_ gem in its mouth.  
  
Aziraphale gasped an exhale finally, and sucked the breath straight back in as he looked up at Crowley’s face. A streak of white, a trail of empty space in Crowley’s red-flame hair now crested like a wave over the snake tattoo at his temple. Crowley opened his eyes and blinked languidly at Aziraphale, whose free hand came to rest along Crowley’s cheek, cradling and tilting his face so he could see where there was now a ring of nightsky black around Crowley’s left iris.  
  
“I want you to always have a piece of me, whatever happens.”  
  
Crowley’s voice cracked as if he hadn’t spoken in an age, words buried for millennia.  
  
Aziraphale’s eyes overflowed with tears as he clutched both of Crowley’s hands to his lips, pressing tearstained kisses to the bony fingers.  
  
“Angel no you don’t, you don’t have to it’s not-”  
  
Aziraphale ignored the protests as he rested his lips against Crowley’s ring finger and gently exhaled. A pair of pure white wings emerged from nothingness and met in an embrace, creating a ring whiter than white gold, porcelain with the strength of holy steel. Nestled safely between them was a small blue stone, as clear and shining as the sky and sea that stretched out from where they stood to the horizon.  
  
A streak of ash-dark grey snaked across Aziraphale’s right temple, and he was smiling when he opened his eyes. A fragment of blue had been taken from his right eye leaving a deep voidblack space, making it seem as if he had two pupils instead of one.  
  
“Let me keep an eye on you dear, for a change.”  
  
Crowley laughed, a sound that couldn’t decide whether it was full of joy or despair at the joke, tears leaving tracks down his face as Aziraphale leaned their foreheads together.  
  
“For the first time angel, I think I’m looking forward to eternity.”  
  
Aziraphale’s smile was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud, brightly clearing the brief rain of tears.  
  
“Come now, we may have eternity, but we only have this afternoon to have this exact picnic. Let me tempt you?”  
  
Aziraphale produced a bottle of sparkling apple cider from the picnic basket with a flourish, and Crowley’s laughter would have been heard down the stretch of grey beach if there had been anybody else there to hear it.  
  
As it was, the two set their picnic together, blessedly (or devilishly) alone and at peace, just for today.


End file.
